Moves to help besieged Gaza medical students have access to information and training

A Doha conference on supporting health education in Gaza has recommended a series of action to enable besieged medical students to have access to information and training.

Recommendations included online libraries within Gaza’s colleges, effective distance learning programmes, scholarship funds for students and teachers, and continuous co-ordination and integration among medical, nursing and allied health educational institutes.

Participants at the International Forum for Supporting Health Professional Education in Gaza, organised by Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) said that hospitals in the Strip should be turned into teaching hospitals in a move that would meet the students’ requirements despite the Israeli siege and without the need to build new health facilities.

The forum also suggested the creation of a sustainable national health education programme that would establish the standards of undergraduate and postgraduate health education, policies and procedures.

Dr Ethem Güneren, from Doctors World Wide (Turkey) and co-host of the event, said that Turkey would hold an International Donors Forum in September in Istanbul to raise funds to carry out the projects endorsed by the forum.

Most of the medical experts, instructors, and practitioners from Gaza were unable to attend the gathering after they faced problems to leave the Strip.